DAC 2019 Was About More Than Just Chips

Behind all the noise of the vast array of slot machines, gambling tables and bars and the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip was the large gathering of the annual Design Automation Conference, which was back in the bustling city for the first time in just under 20 years.

Following its success in San Francisco last year, and indeed where it will return next July (co-located with the SEMICON West event), there was a level of apprehension about this year’s event and whether Las Vegas would be able to attract the same volumes of attendance.

Whilst footfall was noticeably less, there was still a high standard of delegates in terms of both seniority and relevance. From our own perspective there were many we may not have met elsewhere, which highlighted the fact that DAC remains an important event in our industry. Amongst the main three technology pillars of the show – Cadence, Mentor and Synopsys – there were a variety of exhibiting companies covering AI, security, semiconductors, etc; quite a few of whom were exhibiting for the first time.

So what did I see and hear as being the overriding themes of DAC 2019? Well, the importance of IoT security was certainly at the top of the list, across all verticals; as was artificial intelligence which is pervasive across chips and algorithms in EDA. Cloud is gaining real traction too and is in production use for chip design.

UltraSoC has great synergy with those themes in the embedded technology and security arena. We demonstrated as such on our booth by showcasing our full range of debug, analytics, safety and security solutions. Showing how we implement safety and security features in hardware, and how chip designers can get an integrated view of the hardware, firmware and software on their SoC, all generated a lot of interest.

Also at DAC, UltraSoC announced that Wave Computing has chosen the company’s embedded analytics and heterogeneous debug technology to test its new TritonAI 64 scalable IP platform for intelligent SoCs (systems on chip). Wave Computing’s use of UltraSoC’s platform will also serve as a reference design for customers needing to validate and debug heterogeneous IP designs. You can read the full news release here.

So, considering that next year’s DAC has nearly 90% of its exhibitor spaces sold already, we can be quite confident it still has its importance and position as a key event in the calendar for 2020.